The off-and-on ramblings of a Long Island guy (with help from his partner). There's no format, other than sharing what I feel like sharing.
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Rudeness begets rudeness

Last year, I mentioned my usual approach to cold callers. I also mentioned that I consider it rude for people to make unsolicited calls strangers' homes.

The rudeness continues. In fact, it seems to be worse than ever. The "Do Not Call Registry" has worked for most commercial callers, but the charities, pollsters and, worst of all, the politicians seem to be calling more often.

I hate it! Yes, even the charities. As I recently mentioned, we do all we can to support good charitable causes, but I will not give by phone. I won't even fall for the, "if you can't give now, we can send you an envelope" crap. Anything gathered through the efforts of those people will go largely in their pockets, rather than going to the charity.

Tonight, I got a call from the fucking Democrats. While they're better than the damned bigot-laden fucking Republicans, they're still a bunch of whores. And, with that, let me apologize to prostitutes everywhere for what surely was an insult. Clearly, prostitutes are hard-working people trying to provide an honest service, as opposed to the politicians.

So tonight they got me in just the right mood. I answered the phone to hear the brief pause that usually means it's a call from a call center. Then a woman asked if I was Jess. Jess? You're a complete stranger, calling my house at dinnertime and you're addressing me by my first name? Bad move. Very bad move.

Me: "Speaking."

Rude woman who can't get an honest job: "Hello, Jess. I'm calling on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. This call will be brief."

Me (and I'm proud to say that I was so pissed that I didn't miss a beat): "This call will be very brief. DON'T. EVER. CALL. HERE. AGAIN."

With that, I hung up on her.

One last thing. Yes, we have caller ID. The problem is that I'm such a worrier that I'm afraid to let any call go unanswered. What if that strange number I don't recognize (or "Unknown Caller") is a friend or loved one in need who is calling from some strange place? So I can't avoid the cold callers completely, but the gloves are off.

5 comments:

My friends and loved ones all know that I screen my landline calls, so they always leave a message when they call. Of course since I got a cell phone, the only people who call my landline are telemarketers. So screening has helped my mood immensely.